Throughout his entire cultivation journey, Lin Fan had never once encountered a true rival at the same level. This had quietly fostered a trace of arrogance within him. He had never even noticed until today’s crushing defeat shattered it. Only now did his state of mind shift as though he had just awakened from a long and hazy dream.

After standing in silence for a long time, Lin Fan finally bowed deeply, shame written across his face. “Thank you, Father, for this wake-up call...I finally see the truth.”

Lin Xun looked at him for a moment, then asked, “Fan’er, are you willing to undergo a cycle of reincarnation and cultivate again from the beginning?”

Lin Fan froze. “Father...what do you mean?”

Lin Xun proceeded to recount in detail how he himself had once entered the Reincarnation World within the Nirvana of Transcendence to temper his dao anew.

When he finished, Lin Fan’s eyes lit up with excitement. “There’s actually something like that in this world?”

Lin Xun smiled faintly. “If you’re willing, you can enter it right now.”

He possessed the Nirvana Order, and within it lay the Reincarnation World. He could send Lin Fan in at any moment.

“I am willing.” Lin Fan replied without slightest hesitation.

Without delay, Lin Xun invoked the Nirvana Order and sent Lin Fan into the Reincarnation World.

......

“It’s time to make a trip to the depths of the Return Dominion.” As he walked through the Fangchun Secret Realm, Lin Xun made his decision.

He soon found Xuan Jiuyin, Jintian Xuanyue, Toady, A’lu and the others, informing them of his intent and instructing them to guard the Fangchun Secret Realm in his absence. That very day, he departed.

......

The Return Dominion was one of the four great dao dominions. Legend had it that every river in the myriad worlds, and even the celestial rivers flowing through the depths of the cosmos, ultimately converged in the mysterious, primordial Return Dominion.

In his youth, Lin Xun had heard that, in the earliest ages, five sacred mountains once encircled the Return Dominion: Yingzhou, Penglai, Fanghu, Daiyu, and Yuanjiao.

Each sacred mountain spanned thirty thousand miles and was separated by seventy thousand feet, linking the starry seas above and the nine hells below. They were each majestic, mysterious and unfathomable.

However, Lin Xun now understood that when the origin power of the Return Dominion dried up in the beginning of the primeval era, everything there had changed as well. At least, those five legendary mountains had long since disappeared.

The Return Dominion was not composed solely of the Fangchun Secret Realm. Within it lay countless other secret realms, many of which Lin Xun never explored. Over the years, as upheaval erupted in its depths, the Return Dominion had been flooded with violent, chaotic surges of vitality, so fierce that no one had been able to draw near.

However, the more dangerous it became, the more curious Lin Xun grew. Even now, the divine sword that exuded an Eternal aura and its hilt engraved with the words Dark Absolute, was etched deep in his memory.

It was unmistakably a sword belonging to an Eternal being, a true Eternal weapon. Even though it had been heavily damaged, it still remained an undying trace of Eternal aura. Furthermore, that very sword was cast out from the depths of the Return Dominion!

Shua!

Lin Xun’s figure blurred and shot forward, heading straight into the depths of the Return Dominion. Along the way, monstrous tides of vitality surged forth like crashing ocean waves, exuding a primal, ancient aura that was utterly astonishing.

It was this vitality that reshaped the laws and order of the entire Ancient Nebula Road, giving rise to an unprecedented great dao presence! However, walking amidst these surging torrents and enduring their impact was unimaginably dangerous.

It was no wonder that Toady and A’lu had been forced to retreat. Such surges of vitality were enough to crush even Emperors, and the deeper one ventured, the more violent and dangerous they became. Before long, even Lin Xun had no choice but to fully circulate his cultivation to resist and disperse it.

Along the way, he came across many secret realms and entered them to explore and investigate. However, aside from divine herbs and divine materials, nothing there truly caught his attention.

In truth, at his current level of cultivation, anything below the Immortal tier had long since lost its appeal to him. He pressed on for the time it takes for a stick of incense to burn.

Boom!

From within the raging torrent of vitality, a ghastly pale skeletal hand suddenly thrust forth. Its five bare fingers were as smooth as polished jade, each knuckle pulsing with a chilling aura of eternity.

The skeletal hand shot forward, erupting with a ferocious and sinister aura as it lunged for Lin Xun. In that instant, Lin Xun was chilled to the bone and he instinctively unleashed all his might to meet the attack head-on. It was impossible to dodge it.

Bang! He was blasted backward as if struck by a divine hammer, staggering through the air as shock and disbelief twisted his features. At his current level, he could suppress even an Eternal Will Dharma Form, yet now he had been driven back by nothing more than a single hand radiating an aura of eternity!

Shua!

Before he could even steady himself, the five fingers of the skeletal hand abruptly flew open, transforming into five peerless, razor-sharp divine swords. A tide of black Eternal sword qi rushed toward him.

This strike was even more terrifying than the first. Lin Xun dodged with everything he had, not daring to hesitate for even an instant.

Rumble! The surrounding void shattered into chaos. The pitch-black sword intent was too powerful. Although Lin Xun managed to avoid a direct hit, the residual power still caught him.

Chi!

His near indestructible immortal body was marred by ghastly sword wounds and blood sprayed everywhere.

“How can it be this powerful? Could the owner of this hand be a true Eternal being?” For the first time in many years, a real sense of danger gripped Lin Xun.

Over the years, he had rarely suffered injury, and even more rarely had he encountered a truly worthy opponent. Now, he had been wounded by nothing more than a single hand. It felt so unreal it almost seemed like a nightmare.

Shua!

The deathly pale skeletal hand continued to swirl with an aura of eternity. With every strike, a sword intent as dark and devouring as an endless night erupted forth, savage and overbearing, as though the eternal darkness itself had descended to swallow all things.

Even as Lin Xun evaded with all his strength, danger closed in step by step. The sword wounds on his body continued to multiply. None of them were fatal, but together they left him looking utterly battered and tragic.

“I can’t afford to drag this out any longer...”

A grim light flashed through his eyes. When the skeletal hand came crashing down again, he wasted no time. With a decisive thought, he activated the power of the Gate of Exile.

Boom! In the blink of an eye, the skeletal hand, together with the black Eternal sword intent it unleashed, vanished into the Gate of Exile. Surprisingly, it went smoothly.

“That’s right, the skeletal hand has no intelligence. Although its power is boundlessly terrifying, it knows nothing of the mysteries of the Gate of Exile. It walked straight into the trap.”

Lin Xun let out a long, heavy breath, then realized how wasteful that move was. He had expended nearly thirty percent of his power to use the Gate of Exile, yet it had only remained active for a few breaths.

“Since it’s here, I might as well take a closer look at what it really is.”

With a thought, he compressed the Gate of Exile into a wisp of light, allowing it to maintain its form for an entire hour. Then his figure plunged straight into the Realm of Exile. The familiar gray world unfolded before him once more. His figure flickered through it, and in moments, he arrived at the region where the Corpse Severing Millstones lay.

Rumble—

Two enormous, millstone-like divine discs, one black and one white, ground against one another, grinding and rotating with a deep, thunderous rumble that seemed to echo through heaven and earth.

Lin Xun came to a halt, his eyes narrowing. Between the opposing divine millstones, the pale skeletal hand was being crushed inch by inch. Like grains cast into a mill, a faint clattering rang out as it was ground apart.

Under Lin Xun’s gaze, the hand was completely pulverized and erased from existence, but a wisp of black dao power remained behind, deep, silent and as still as eternal night. Lin Xun’s heart stirred in astonishment.

The Corpse Severing Millstones were born from the Principle of Annihilation, one of the fundamental principles of heaven and earth, capable of completely erasing the power of any cultivator without leaving a trace. This was the first time Lin Xun had encountered a power that could not be fully obliterated by it.

Lin Xun immediately grasped the black dao power across the void. After a brief examination, his expression visibly changed. It was an incomparably pure and terrifying Eternal law, containing an overwhelming sword intent. Though it was only a fragment, it radiated a power so great that even Lin Xun felt a deep sense of danger.

“An Eternal law is no different from the true principles of heaven and earth. The reason this fragment wasn’t annihilated is because its level is equal to the Principle of Annihilation itself...” Understanding dawned on Lin Xun.

Once the principles of heaven and earth were grasped and refined by an Eternal being, they transformed into their own Eternal law. It was akin to Divine Rank law, both possessing power comparable to the power of fundamental principles and belonging to the same tier.

“The skeletal hand was so terrifying precisely because of this black Eternal law. I wonder what would happen if I refined it completely...” Lin Xun murmured in thought.

For any other cultivator, such a thought would be unthinkable. However, for Lin Xun, it was not a difficult matter.

His Immortal law had already surpassed that of his peers, and after absorbing ninety percent of the power of the Nirvana Order, it was already on par with Divine Rank law. In that sense, it was fully capable of contending with the power of principles.

After a brief pause, a resolute glint flashed in his eyes. Drawing in a deep breath, he sat cross-legged in the void and began to circulate his cultivation, guiding his Immortal law to refine the black Eternal law.

Boom!

Violent fluctuations erupted from the black Eternal law, but they were swiftly suppressed and enveloped by Lin Xun’s Immortal law. Without any unforeseen disturbance, the black Eternal law began to be refined, little by little...

In less than a quarter of an hour the black Eternal law was completely refined. At the same time, Lin Xun keenly sensed a subtle transformation within his Immortal law. Though the change was almost imperceptible, it shook him to the core.

During his time in the Origin Sect, he had refined many rare ninth grade Heaven Rank laws, and he had even refined the Nirvana law to ninety percent. He had truly believed that his own Immortal law had already been tempered to its absolute limit.

Now, new changes had emerged once again, completely beyond anything he had expected.

After calming himself, a realization slowly surfaced. “Eternal law is nothing other than the power of the world’s principles, and Divine Rank laws likewise contain that same power. By refining this black Eternal law, it is no different from refining a Divine Rank law...

“Does this mean that, although all Heaven Rank laws are now meaningless to me, as long as I can absorb and refine Divine Rank laws, my own Immortal law can continue to evolve?”

This realization left Lin Xun stunned for a moment. If that was true, then even at the perfect Transcendence Realm, had his Immortal law still not reached true perfection?

If that was the case, what right did he have to even speak of attaining eternity?

“Fortunately, I never rushed to break into the Eternal Stage...Otherwise, the flaws in my Immortal law alone would have been enough to bring utter disaster upon me while attempting breakthrough..."

Lin Xun quietly breathed a sigh of relief.